Meet the Hair Stylist Who Will Give You A Discount If You Give Her A Man

September 25, 2011

After returning to New York to open her East 11th Street business Extensions by JILL in March, hair colorist and stylist Jill Hammelman had a promotion: refer a friend and get 20 percent off. It worked, tripling business, she told us. But she was “completely surrounded by women.” Now, she’s engaged in another, similar promotion: set her up on a date and get 20 percent off.

We live in a town where people often complain that women outnumber men: a Friday CBS piece about Hammelman said there are 200,000 more single ladies than dudes in the city, and a Post story today singled out certain zip codes in Chelsea and the Upper East Side as being particularly barren lands for young women in search of a mate. It’s also a city where everyone is constantly working, Hammelman said of her experience, making it hard to meet people who “are not in your little tiny universe.”

So having tried some of the traditional meeting men methods — bars, online dating — Hammelman decided to do something different.

“I guess you have to do something to stand out in the crowd,” Hammelman said.

Here’s her pitch: if you set her up you get 20 percent off your next hair service for each date your match produces. If she gets married to your proposed beau she’ll then do your hair free for the rest of her life. It was an idea inspired by a combination of the earlier deal she had offered and an “aha! moment” brought about by seeing funny ads featured on The Tonight Show.

Although she said she has thought that guys might be going out with her just to get their friends a discount on their dos, most of her referrals have been from already established clients, who she says wouldn’t be setting her up with that type. She’s also getting dates solicited by via email from people she doesn’t know for which she has to do “some pretty serious screening.” (Her salon is only for women, so no cheap crew cuts, all you wingmen out there.)

Hammelman, 37, will be taking part in this “experiment” for a full year — she started May 11.

So far she’s gone out on over a dozen dates.

“I did go out with a couple people twice and I actually met really great people,” she said. “I just have not found the spark, the butterflies in my stomach, the chemistry, the fairytale yet.”

If you’re interested in setting her up, you should know: it says on her blog for the project that her celebrity crush is a “Stephen Colbert and Jeff Goldblum love child.”